20 Years Later
by Morristown Colonial
Summary: Simon Doyle meets Beckett and Castle at a Castle book signing about 20 years after the events in "Time will Tell."
1. Chapter 1

**A short entry. In real time it takes place after the Energy Wars, after Simon Doyle gets back from his 2013 adventure sometime in 2035, 2036. In Castle time it takes place after 6 x05 "Time will Tell". It has some references to previous episodes, and evens some references to my previous stories. The Castle characters are not mine and their use, or the use of any other characters, living or dead and the words and opinions they may speak are my creations just for the story and should not be attributed to them. **

Simon Doyle sat back in his rocking chair. The apartment, which had a small office was, busy. It had shelves, book cases, and cabinets full of souvenirs, mementoes, knickknacks, and pictures of times gone by. Each one acquired during one of his time jaunts, reminding him of his adventures whether good or bad, during that trip. As a temporal and cultural anthropologist, it was his job to go back in time and fill in gaps that history did not record. Occasionally, he and a select few of his colleagues would go back in time and fix some wrong or injustice as his bosses saw it. While he did not always agree with what his bosses saw as "wrong," he did not argue. He was having too much fun going back in time.

Doyle's apartment had all the modern conveniences, especially computers and electronic readers, blue ray players and access to every electronic library in the United States. Through these he had access to every major library in the world. He could read, write or do arthemetic on his tablets. Most of this though was for work. He also had real books on his book shelves and book cases, such as some ancient first editions from his trips to the Middle Ages, and a Torah Scroll from a synagogue in Russia, that he saved from the Nazis. He was not supposed to take some of these things, but nobody said anything because he risked his life on many of these jaunts and taking these books caused nothing but a small ripple in time. He also lent them out on many occasions for study, research or even props for movies and TV.

Simon enjoyed all of these. Still his most prized possessions were two items he got from his favorite serious author, Richard Castle. He was in a real brick and mortar book store (AB&N or Amazon, Barnes & Noble), one of the extremely rare ones left in Denver, his hometown. He liked the smell of the books. The pages flipping through his hand. Even the occasional paper cut was a badge of honor. It set him apart from the masses whose major injury was stiff fingers and carpel tunnel wrists from using the computer and mouse too much. He was looking for a book on Paul Deschile, the physicist that saved the world from ultra-nationalist and corporate big wigs who wanted to monopolize the world's energy for the select few.

While on line, Doyle saw a sign at the checkout counter announcing that Richard Castle would be there within three hours to talk about and sign his latest book, _Every Day Magic of Life_. Doyle was unsure about waiting there to see Castle until he moved up in line. The bottom of the announcement revealed that Castle's wife, Captain Katherine Beckett of the NPD would also be there. Captain? Something was wrong and Doyle needed to find out. He paid for the book on Daschle and went home to get his other Castle book, _Nothing Can Change You._

Simon Doyle had time before Castle's appearance so he looked at the cover on his first Castle book. It distinctly read, _Richard Castle lives in New York with his wife, Senator Beckett, and their three children._ The book was written only three years ago, so Beckett should still be a Senator. Doyle was not much into politics, he rarely voted, so that if something had happened to Beckett, he would not know of it. Maybe he would have a minute or two to talk to Castle and Beckett about that.

He leafed through the Deschile book. It had some pictures, one of Daschle as a high school senior, braces and all. Another one was a picture of a coffee-stained letter, written to a Professor Wickfield more than 23 years ago. The caption just mentioned that set certain things in motion in Daschle's life. Doyle was curious so he went to the back of the book. Near the end was an acknowledgment that picture came from the collection of Kate Castle.

With Doyle's curiosity at its highest level, he made his way back to AB&N, with his two books. He made sure to have a receipt for each, just in case anyone questioned his ownership of them. Then he bought Castle's newest book and got on line to have it autographed.

About half way through the line, at a point where Doyle could just about make out Castle, he suddenly heard in firm voice just above a whisper, "Drop your books, Hands in the air." The people on either side of Doyle in the line turned around. They looked at the woman and thought she was nuts, pretty but nuts. Doyle had dropped the books but when he straightens from picking the books up, he recognized Beckett immediately.

"Was that really necessary? I did save your life years ago."

Beckett smiled at him. "Mr. Doyle, would you come with me please."

"Uh, what for Detective?, Captain? Senator?"

"Kate will be fine. I thought I recognized you. I know, Castle will be happy to see you. He and I want to catch up, so come with me. The book signing still has a way to go, but you and I can go in the back. They have a coffee and cake set up where we can sit and relax. Bring the books too. I am sure Castle would like to write special autographs for you."

"Well, ok."

Doyle went to a back room with Kate. It was retro, a 1999 look with plush chairs, wooden tables, big carpet and an old style coffee, an espresso machine. "This machine reminds me of the one Castle bought for the 12th way back when. It is also just as temperamental. What would you like, Mr. Doyle?"

"I see they have Flavor Country, coffee black, thank you. And please call me Simon."

"There you go Simon." Kate said as she handed him the coffee mug with the AB&N logo on it.

"When last we met Kate, you were extremely skeptical of my story. Have any of these last years changed your mind? I see by the jacket of Castle's new book, you still have three children."

"Well, we do have three, although I only gave birth to two, Jackson Beckett-Castle, my eldest son and my daughter, Joanne Beckett-Castle Cox. I adopted my other daughter."

"Only you adopted her?" Doyle asked.

"Well, you see I was married to her father. My other daughter is Alexis Harper Castle-White." Kate replied.

"Uh?"

"The short story is that I adopted her after her biological mother died. It was a little sad really, Alexis' mother Meredith, Castle's first wife, was affectionately known as the 'Deep Fried Twinkle'. She loved Alexis and Alexis loved her. However she was much more like a crazy aunt, swooping in at times for fun and games then leaving again for long stretches of time. Meredith died soon after Alexis' son was born. It was a car accident"

"Interesting, please go on."

"Alexis and I had our rough spots even before I became engaged to Castle," Kate said. "I always respected her. She was as smart as her father, but more mature then him. As time went on I grew to love her. It became a 'big sister, little sister relationship,' which was fine."

"So what happened?"

"Well, when my son was born, Alexis, of her own accord, always referred to me as 'Mom' in front of him. When I asked her about that, she said she did not want to confuse him as to whom I was. When Alexis' son was born, she referred to me as Grandma Kate. Meredith was rarely around and I acted like her boy's Grandmother. Finally, when Meredith died, Alexis came to me and asked if it could be official. She said that I was more of a mother to her then Meredith ever was and she wanted all her children to know that."

"What did Castle think about that?"

"Well, you can ask him about it more, but he had no objections. So, just before Castle's first serious book came out, I adopted Alexis and she became 'our' third child."

"Wow, That explains that. But are you, or were you ever a Senator. My book jacket says so."

"Let me see that book." Beckett took the book and skimmed through it. She grinned, "I will let Castle explain that."

"Oh, ok. What about this letter in the Deschile book? It says it comes from the collection of Kate Castle."

"Well, the night the case ended, I was going home for a nice soak and to reread one of my fiance's Nikki Heat books. By the way, I think they are great literature" Beckett said as she bit her lip. "Castle had to go home and talk with Alexis. As I was lifting my carry case, I knocked over a cup of coffee on my desk. It spilled all over the Daschle letter. As it dried, something struck me as familiar. When I looked up at the letter on the board, the coffee mark I just made was the exact same as that on the photo. Candidly, it did send a chill through me for a second. Then I went home."

"All well and good Detective, but that does not explain the picture from you collection."

"After I gave birth to my children and then adopted Alexis, I had a dream. More like a nightmare where millions of people died. When I woke up, it was the anniversary of this case. As my husband says, the Universe has a way of giving you signs to prove a point, pointing out paths to take way when you're not sure. I told him about the incident with the coffee and he told me it was a sign that Simon Doyle was telling the truth."

"Smart man," Doyle said. "But you did not then and still do not today strike me as a woman who believes in such things."

"I believe in everyday magic, things that I can see, feel and touch. Flowers popping up through the frost, the sounds of Coltrain. If I had not met Castle, I would still look for explanations in everything and probably miss out on the unexplainable beauty of the universe. My whole life with Castle was unexpected, extraordinary and wonderful. Still is."

Doyle looked puzzled, "That still does not explain your picture of the letter."

Beckett shook her head. "Sorry, I edit Castle's books sometimes and I guess his novelists ways rub off on me from time to time. The coincidence of my spilling the coffee on the letter was too much, even for my skeptical mind. The dream I had clinched it. That day I went to the old evidence hall, found the file and took a picture of it, only the front. Then I burned the letter."

"Destroying evidence, isn't that a crime?"

"It is," Beckett answered, "but I have been known to go outside the box every now and again. I put a copy of the picture in the evidence box, so not all was lost. Also, the box was set to go to a secure storage site where it would be impossible for anyone to get at it unless they had a court order or where an NYPD police officer could get it for current use. Even then the requesting officer would have to requisition it, so there would be a trail."

"Detective, I must be hitting that wall that I thought your husband knocked down. Why risk your career on doing such a thing?" Doyle asked.

"I respect the universe. I did not want to take any chances that Ward or any of his cohorts could get a Deschile again and if they did, why make it easy."

Doyle smiled. "A clever woman."

I thought this might be a one-shot, but I am running at the mouth again. Defiantly will be completed in next chapters. I have most of it mapped out and written, but still a kink or two to work out.

Please forgive me any spelling or grammar mistakes. I have done my best with spell check and grammar check, but the programs are fallible. Your comments, good, bad or indifferent are always welcome. They give live to the story and make me a better writer for you.


	2. Chapter 2

**This will complete my short story. Thank you to all the reviewers. I try to put your comments into practice. My word processing draft did differentiate between fonts and bolding, but it did not come out in the uploaded version. I have therefore denoted the Author's Note at the end. Also, I have tried to use different print to denote things like signatures and handwriting. I hope it comes through.**

**The Castle characters are not mine and their use, or the use of any other characters, living or dead and the words and opinions they may speak are my creations just for the story and should not be attributed to them. **

"I respect the universe. I did not want to take any chances that Ward or any of his cohorts could get Deschile again. And if they did try, it would not be easy."

Doyle smiled. "A clever woman."

Just then, Castle walked in, kissed his wife and said, "I know, why do you think I married her. Good to see you Simon. How have you been?"

"Well, thank you. Your wife seems to have mellowed a bit since last we met. She was explaining certain things to me, like why she had a picture of the Paul Deschile's letter to Professor Wickfield, and the circumstances surrounding your 3 children."

"Good stories all. I guess the universe has rubbed off on her a bit after all these years." Castle looked at Beckett. Kate just rolled her eyes and he laughed.

Doyle then said, "One more mystery to solve, your newest book has you married with 3 children and living with your wife, Captain Kate Beckett, NYPD. Yet your first book has her listed as a Senator. What happened?"

"He must have gotten one of the gag copies" Castle said as he looked at Beckett. "Simon, let me see your copy." As Castle took the copy he smiled, "Yup, that is it."

"What is going on?" Doyle asked.

Castle began, "A little background is in order. Before we got married, my extraordinary wife played a trick on me. I broke my knee skiing and we had to cancel a trip to the South Pacific as I healed. I was in a wheel chair for 3 weeks, after spending a week in the hospital and rehab. I was bored silly and missing working with my wife."

"Hey, I was missing you too," Beckett said, "until you got to be a little nudge."

"I was not a nudge, just bored."

"I'm getting bored. I might be recalled any minute, so please continue." Doyle chimed in.

Castle continued, "Beckett wanted me to keep busy, so she arranged, along with my daughter, mother, 'the boys' and Captain Gates at the 12th and a whole lot of other people a _Rear Window_ scenario that had me going."

"I do not like Agatha Christie."

"Agatha Christie?!" Castle and Beckett said together.

"Isn't that who wrote the book?"

Castle said, "You had better check your history books, DVD's or whatever. Better yet, go back to 1954 and watch the _**Film's**_ [emphasis added] premiere. It is a Hitchcock movie that received four Academy Award Nominations, was number 42 on the AFI's (American Film Institute) top 100 of all time and is part of the US National Film Registry."

Doyle still did not understand, "I told you, I like serious literature better."

"Kate," Castle said in an exasperated voice, "I cannot deal with this."

"Calm down Rick," Kate said in her most soothing tones, "whether or not he understands the movie is not really the point, is it."

"No, I guess not."

"So?" Doyle inquired.

"The point is that my beautiful wife played a birthday trick on me. She made a pretend murder for me to solve. 'It was, without a doubt, the greatest birthday of my life. ... She blew my mind... It was epic' I had to get her back. So I bide my time and the time came after Joanne was born."

"You waited that long?"

"Well," Castle continued, "your appearance and Joanne's birth gave me the perfect back story. What was needed to fulfill your prophecy was for me to be working on some serious life partner. Beckett was on an extended maternity leave. She was not sure what she wanted to do, now that she had the kids and a grandson to be with."

Doyle gave both a puzzled look. Kate said, "Alexis' first born, James."

"It was early October about five weeks before the general election. I had a friend at the election board who knew Kate. In fact, she had helped solve the murder of a relative so that my friend would do anything for me and Kate. So this was the perfect time for me to return the gift to Kate. Just as a coincidence, Kate's father was running for a seat in the NY State Senate. I asked that all our friends and contacts, write in Kate's name for Senate in the write in section. This way, their were legitmate votes for her for Senate."

"Interesting, go on."

"Kate was still under the weather and the day after the election, she received a notice that Beckett had won the NY State Senate seat for our district. Our friend had it printed on official stationery, but only two copies, one for Kate and one for me. I kept the TV off and did not show Kate any of the newspapers for that day. As luck would have it though Kate's father, actually won a senate seat. There really was a 'Senator Beckett.' "

"When I heard the news, I called my contacts at the NY Ledger and had them delete the name James from the Senate winners and just leave Beckett. Again, there were only two copies of that paper, one to me and one I gave to Kate."

Castle continued, "I had my publisher print out on my new book jacket, the description you gave, _Richard Castle lives in New York with his wife, Senator Beckett, and their three children. _The jacket was finished three days Before the election. About 300 of the jackets were printed. I showed this jacket to Kate and she was shocked. 'How could you do this, what will people think after the election. I am not even running. Is is legal?' She was so nervous that she could did not leave the house for those days. No calls, no nothing. She was so mad at me that I had the couch for those nights. I felt bad so that I took all the night calls for Joanna those days."

"What happened when your wife received the letter from the Board of Elections and saw the paper?" Doyle asked.

"She was stunned. She was also worried. How could she be a Senator and raise her children. The tale of two cities experiment with DC had failed. How could she do it between Albany and NYC? I did not want her to worry too long, so a few days after, I asked her if she believed that there were some things that just could not be explained. She said she did."

Kate interjected, "It was not as hard as you may think. That coffee mark on Deschile's letter convinced me that the possibility existed."

"The next day my mother, Jim Beckett, Lannie and Espo, and Ryan, Jenny and their children, Alexis, her husband and our grandson all came for diner. Big Chinese buffet. That is when we revealed that it was not Kate, but Jim who won the Senate seat. Everyone laughed and had a good time."

"That does not explain how I have a book jacket with the incorrect information." Doyle said.

"Well, most of those jackets were on books that I gave out to friends and family. I did find out later that about 75 were shipped to AB&N and were sold on the open market. Little miss-by-the-book here was worried that it was misleading. Black Pawn's lawyers researched the matter and issued an opinion not to worry. In fact there was a Senator Beckett who lived in NY. There was no intention to mislead anyone and noone could really be hurt by that information. All other runs were corrected."

Doyle smiled, "My copy must be worth something then, uh?"

"Yes indeed my friend." Castle replied. "It will be worth more though, if I autograph it to you."

"Well please do."

Castle took the book, the one with the joke jacket from Doyle and signed it.

_To Simon Doyle, _

_Thanks for the heads up._

Richard Castle

After reading the blurb, Doyle looked crestfallen. "That's it? I do not mean to criticize a serious author, but frankly, I was expecting more."

Castle smiled. He looked at Beckett who looked at Doyle and smiled. Now Doyle was really perplexed. "What is this all about?"

Castle handed him another copy of his newest book. He and Beckett had signed it. "As you know, I dedicate my books to those I love. You can see that this book is dedicated to my grandchildren, James, Meredith and Laura. However, there is, in this book only, an added dedication/acknowledgment, here" Castle pointed to the section in front of the dedication. "My wife actually suggested I do this. She will not admit it, but she knew that we would meet again someday."

Simon Doyle read the handwritten page.

_Dear Simon,_

_Thank you for alerting us to the threat to Paul Deschile. While we are glad that we could help prevent the future deaths of many, many people, the greatest satisfaction that we got was helping to prevent the present death of one man. _

_Your job is fascinating, but let us give you some advice. Be extremely selective about who you tell the future to. Many people would say they would love to know the future but if they actually knew it, most would be very disappointed. The future is not about what happened, but what will happen. Since the future is not written yet, it can change up to the last minute. That is what hope means, making a better future. Let people dream of bettering themselves and it will eventually happen._

_The only thing that should be certain in the future are Death and Taxes._

Katherine Castle

**Richard Castle**

A/N- **Please forgive me any spelling or grammar mistakes. I have done my best with spell check and grammar check, and my own proof read, but programs are fallible and I might have read in the correct word when it actually was not. Your comments, good, bad or indifferent are always welcome. They give live to the story and make me a better writer for you****. **


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